Richard Pike, chief sales and marketing officer at Phoebus Software:

“This is the first sign that housing is being affected by the current economic situation. The double hit of rising inflation and increasing interest rates is enough to give pause and, when finances are stretched, moving house falls down the priority list.

“We saw warnings of redundancies from estate agent chains last week, which reflects the ebb in confidence and restricts the number of properties coming to market. We are heading into a traditionally quieter time of the year, but there is still work to be done for brokers and lenders.”